Oracle has quietly released E-Business Suite Release 12 to customers a few days in advance of a big launch event planned for next week in New York City.

The update to its suite of business applications is available for download now in all supported languages, said Steve Chan, Oracle's director of applications technology integration, in a blog posting Thursday.

The new version has 1,500 new capabilities, according to Oracle, including an updated user interface and features that make it easier to tie together information gathered from systems spread across different regions and company divisions.

For example, in October Oracle said that the new release would include Profitability Manager, for doing profitability analysis and reporting along a variety of business segments, including products and channels.

Oracle Compensation Workbench, also expected in the release, allows users to view in one place all forms of compensation for employees regardless of the worker's geographic location or place in the organization. Other financial, project management and accounting features let users centrally manage functions that span multiple locations.

The launch event, scheduled for next Wednesday, will include the release of updates to Oracle's other application suites, including PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Siebel. The company has also said it will release its new WebCenter Suite user interface technology before the end of the month.

Oracle wasn't always confident that E-Business Suite 12 would be ready next week. In an earlier posting, Chan warned readers against speculating that the software would be available in time for the event.